Various industries involve the delivery and use of specific materials, such as dry solids. Presently known systems and techniques for delivering and using specialized materials may have one or more drawbacks. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the material 32 being discharged from a material storage/dispensing unit 30 onto a conveyor 40 often overflows off the sides of the conveyor 40. Depending upon the particular application, material overflow can freeze the conveyor belt from moving, make it difficult or impossible to determine or control the rate of discharge of material from the conveyor to the desired destination or cause other unwanted consequences.
Various existing systems and techniques attempt to determine, control or affect the amount of material being discharged from the material storage/dispensing unit. In hydraulic fracturing operations, for example, the dry solids are often proppant or sand delivered from a material storage/dispensing unit to a blender unit, where it is mixed in pre-determined proportions with one or more liquids and/or chemicals. The mixture is typically then delivered to a pumping unit and pumped into the well under high pressure on a continuing basis for a period of time. Some systems attempt to determine the amount of material discharged by calculating the loss of weight of the entire material storage unit after material is dispensed onto the conveyor. Depending upon the application, such techniques may be cumbersome, inaccurate or cause other undesirable consequences. Other techniques involve running the conveyor very fast and frequently varying the open position of the discharge gates on the material dispenser, which are believed to often be inaccurate, cumbersome or cause other undesirable consequences.
In many operations, it is desirable to measure and/or maintain the level of material dispensed into the hopper bin of one or more piece of equipment. Some existing techniques attempting to measure and/or maintain the material level in a blender unit hopper bin require a first person positioned near the blender unit to visually monitor the height of the material in the bin and signal a second person at the material storage/delivery unit to increase or decrease the supply of material to the blender unit. The presence of these personnel near the equipment (in the United States) currently requires a third person, a health/safety/environmental (HSE) monitor, also on site. This technique may also be inaccurate, cumbersome and cause other unwanted consequences, such as material overflowing at the blender unit.
It should be understood that the above-described features and examples are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope or subject matter of the appended claims or those of any related patent application or patent. None of the appended claims or claims of any related application or patent should be limited by the above discussion or construed to address, include or exclude each or any of the cited examples, features and/or disadvantages, merely because of the mention thereof herein.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved systems, apparatus and methods useful to assist in determining and/or adjusting the height of material in a hopper bin having one or more of the attributes or capabilities described or shown in, or as may be apparent from, the other portions of this patent.